Okay, we're about to go to war in Iraq and we face a contast threat of domestic terrorism. Now, how does the Bush administration spend the limited resources of the Justice Department? Fighting "head shops (usdoj.gov)

(I also feel compelled to point out that there was a local crack down on stores selling bongs as "water pipes" about five years ago and, when I was last in Tela Ropa no more than a month ago, the closest things to drug paraphanelia they were selling consisted of blacklight posters and hackey sacks.)

"It's like you lost your keys in the garage, but you look for them in the living room because the light is better."-Bill Maher, on the impending war in Iraq

Poor potheads. Pot is so widespread, that you would think that any political figure running on a pro-pot platform would easily be able to grab a decent amount of votes. Except for the fact that most people just don't give a fuck when they're high.

-Jag

No matter how obvious the trap, you can't complete the game unless you fall into it.

Originally posted by JaguarPoor potheads. Pot is so widespread, that you would think that any political figure running on a pro-pot platform would easily be able to grab a decent amount of votes. Except for the fact that most people just don't give a fuck when they're high.

-Jag

That's funny. At the same time, you may have hit on why pot is not legal and why there is no serious attempt at legalization. It seems that most people support its legalization but the people who would actively vote for a pro-pot candidate do not have enough zeal to counteract the zeal of the prohibition group. Hell, it's hard just get them off the couch to pay the pizza guy, much less vote.

You also have to take into account the reasons why it's so easy to go to war against the potheads: They don't fight back.

Many of the other hardcore drugs are controlled by specific parties (such as drug cartels) and can throw the money they make into arming convoys and buying congressmen. However, the majority of pot (as far as I can tell) is homegrown and distributed by people who don't carry guns. So cracking down on the pot dealers is a hell of a lot easier than going after the dope smugglers.

-Jag

No matter how obvious the trap, you can't complete the game unless you fall into it.

Originally posted by MoeGatesBesides, I thought some liberals claimed that if you smoked pot, you were supporting terrorism? Maybe Ashcroft thinks that too!

Liberals claimed this? Do you just blame everything you think is silly on "Liberals?"

Yup. Because unlike my non-Liberal leftist friends... Liberals tend to make the most outlandish claims that are totally unsupported by fact. You know, like Bush is in Iraq for Oil (if that were the case, it would be far easier and cheaper to just push for the sanctions to be lifted), and "The Rain Forest is the Lungs of the world" (when any dilhole knows that the Rain Forest is a net consumser of oxygen, and the so called "lungs of the Earth" is actually our oceans), oh, and my most recent favorite "Inspections work, war does not." Gotta love the way that argument just flies in the face of all of human history...

So yeah, I find absolutely silly ideas to usually come from Liberals. So I might be wrong on the specifics on this one, (who really knows), but it is a safe bet nonetheless. Don't those commercials come from the same eco-freaks who claim that driving an SUV contributes to terrorism?

(edited by Pool-Boy on 25.2.03 1151)Not that restraint when posting in a "public" forum isn't a good thing...

"Yup. Because unlike my non-Liberal leftist friends... Liberals tend to make the most outlandish claims that are totally unsupported by fact. You know, like Bush is in Iraq for Oil (if that were the case, it would be far easier and cheaper to just push for the sanctions to be lifted), and "The Rain Forest is the Lungs of the world" (when any dilhole knows that the Rain Forest is a net consumser of oxygen, and the so called "lungs of the Earth" is actually our oceans), oh, and my most recent favorite "Inspections work, war does not." Gotta love the way that argument just flies in the face of all of human history..."

Don't forget crazy notions like "George Bush is an illiterate drunk-driver" and "the US sells arms to foreign countries when it suits them"! Oh, wait...

Yup. Because unlike my non-Liberal leftist friends... Liberals tend to make the most outlandish claims that are totally unsupported by fact.

What's the difference between non-Liberal leftists and Liberal leftists? I'm not being a schmuk, I'm genuinly curious as to what your definition is. I can give you the campus lefty definition, but I'm pretty sure it's different from yours.

It seems that I am - in no particular order - Zack Morris, John Adams, a Siren, Janeane Garofalo, Cheer Bear, Aphrodite, a Chihuahua, Data, Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel, Amy-Wynn Pastor, Hydrogen, Bjork, Spider-Man, Boston, and a Chaotic Good Elvin Bard-Mage.

Yup- Bush is an illiterate drunk driver definitly qualifies.I mean, first off, the man clearly is not illiterate. Sure, he is not the best public speaker, but who gives a rats ass about that? Personally, that was one of the WORST things about Clinton and Gore... they were too polished, too fake. When Bush speaks, it is more like a REGULAR PERSON. I don't have a clue when that became a bad thing...

The "drunk driver" part simply astounds me. He is hounded by something he did in his YOUTH (damn, Republicans did not harp on the whole pot thing NEARLY this bad, and pot is not even legal), and he is clean now. It is simply incredible that the Liberal ideology espouses "forgiveness" and the notion that you can be rehabilitated from anything, and thusly they proceed to forgive every crack-whore, drugged up Mom, AA member, viloent criminal in jail who has found God, but they can't forget or forgive the decades past drunkeness of a Republican President. Because, you know, he is not a Liberal, therefore not worthy of forgiveness.

Hypocrites.

Not that restraint when posting in a "public" forum isn't a good thing...

"It is simply incredible that the Liberal ideology espouses "forgiveness" and the notion that you can be rehabilitated from anything"

And there's your problem. Yeah, it's the iberal standpoint, but not the Republican one, the PARTY HE'S THE HEAD OF.

If I were a smaller man, I COULD point you in the direction of the gun control thread a coupla months back which contained several Republican folk proclaiming all those that break the law deserving of severe consequences. I COULD do that. I could also point out that he's not only been arrested just once, but THREE TIMES-including dirsorderly conduct at a baseball game. A friggin' baseball game! You'd have to really go some to get cuffed and carted there. I could talk about his churlish, "can't-make-me-admit-I'm-telling-you" attitude to allegations of cocaine use in his youth. I could also, of course, point to Bushs' exceptionally poor academic career and wonder how this man could be considered a fit candidate for leader of the free world status.

But of course, I'm a bigger man than that, so I won't. And for the last time, I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat, I'm ENGLISH. I'm sure you can use that to disqualify me because I know nothing about your coutnry, and if you do then I'll happily remind you of that next you comment on any place outside the US.

Just because you are English does not mean you are not Liberal. I never once called you a "Democrat." Patience and more careful reading mught do you some good.

And just because Republicans do not make a point out of involving the GOVERNMENT into every damned aspect of "rehabilitation" does not mean they do not advocate it. And I think there is a huge difference between punishing someone who improperly uses a firearm and forgiving a former addict. I do not think you could find a single Republican who would not readily forgive someone who was once addicted to heroin, broke the habit, and is now living a productive life.

The "Republican" standpoint to that is that it is a good thing to rehabilitate... it is a bad thing to be coddled to and forgiven for being an addict before you even bother to rehabilitate..

You may be English, oldschool, but you seem to be pretty well full of hate and intolorance of different ideas. I am glad you are not voting in my country...

Not that restraint when posting in a "public" forum isn't a good thing...

Seriously, saying I'm full of hate and intolerance was uncalled for. You have nothing to back that up with whatsoever. Do you count me simply telling the truth about your president as intolerant and hateful?

And yeah, I do think that a recovered alcoholic, possible former drug user, semi-literate and bloodthirsty guy in general is not the person to be leading the free world. Sorry if you find THAT intolerant. I simply call it common sense, especially considering as the man wasn't elected into office properly.

"I am glad you are not voting in my country..."

And that....that's the stupidest thing I've evr heard. Try sorting out some of the scum that hold the vote in your country before proclaiming that you're glad there aren't people "like me" who hold a different political view from you voting.

I don't mean to pile on Pool Boy, but the stuff with Jeb Bush's daughter and her cocaine abuse kind of shoots the Republican platform (the Bush family specifically) in the foot. If I was a Republican, and the drug/rehabilitation issue mattered to me (which it does) no one from the Bush clan would be receiving my vote.

-Jag

No matter how obvious the trap, you can't complete the game unless you fall into it.

Why do you leftists have a problem with rumors Bush may have done coke in his past? I don't recall any leftwingers having beef with the pothead Clinton telling us he "didn't inhale". It's one thing to lie about whether you did or did not do something, but don't insult our intelligence.

And I would have figured that rumors of Bush snorting coke would make you guys like him since you're all into that whole "Legalize IT!!!!" thing.

I'm not about to speak for Pool-Boy, but maybe he just doesn't want any MORE people voting who don't understand the electoral process. We have enough people already who don't know what the electoral college is and still think that Bush was 'selected, not elected' in an "improper" election.

'But if one is struck by me only a little, that is far different, the stroke is a sharp thing and suddenly lays him lifeless, and that man's wife goes with cheeks torn in lamentation, and his children are fatherless, while he, staining the soil with his red blood, rots away, and there are more birds than women swarming about him.' Diomedes, The Iliad of Homer

Originally posted by Pool-Boy"The Rain Forest is the Lungs of the world" (when any dilhole knows that the Rain Forest is a net consumser of oxygen, and the so called "lungs of the Earth" is actually our oceans)

Trees take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen, but then again, you've never been one to let facts get in the way of your point.

Oh, and the SUV ads were actually made in direct opposition to those stupid anti-marijuana ads. Those were paid for by, wait for it, the US government. Again, pesky facts.

I know, I know, everything a liberal says is automatically wrong and stupid when you're as open to new ideas as you are.

(edited by OlFuzzyBastard on 25.2.03 1844)"It's like you lost your keys in the garage, but you look for them in the living room because the light is better."-Bill Maher, on the impending war in Iraq

While I'd agree that theres no reason for the justice department to shut down because of the potential war, is this really even worth their time regardless?

I mean come on is banning 'water pipes' really gonna stop anyone smoking dope. Ignoring the fact that rolling papers and tobacco are readily available, they do realise with a platic bottle, a biro, and a little imagination the effect of such a pipe can be pretty accurately recreated.

Cripes why not just let the poor little stoners have their pretty pipes instead of shoddy homemade imitations?

Now hackey sacks on the other hand I have issues with.:)

"You dont appreciate a lot of stuff in school until you get older. Little things like being spanked every day by a middle aged woman: stuff you'd pay good money for these days."

Hey, if they can take 1 billion dollars out of the drug trade and get it back into the regular economy (you know, the one that gives most people their jobs) I have no problem with it.

It's not like the people making bongs really thought that they were providing an honest service for tobacco water pipe users. I can't believe there is an amish couple in shock in the county pokey somewhere who didn't see this coming.

Should people do time for this? Well, probably not in my opinion, but lets see what the laws and jury trials say. Federal courts still have to get a jury to convict, right?

Willful ignorance of science is not commendable. Refusing to learn the difference between a credible source and a shill is criminally stupid.

Depending on who's conducting the polls, you can get any results you want, but one I saw last week has support for another war in Iraq at 39% - an astonshingly low number, considering this country's always in favor of bombing people, especially Hussein.